UPDATE 2-EU finance ministers back Georgieva for second IMF term

(Adds details from source on IMF launching nominations process, link to interview, paragraphs 5-7)

By Jan Strupczewski

BRUSSELS, March 12 (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers on Tuesday endorsed International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva for a second term at the helm of the lender of last resort.

Georgieva's current five-year term ends on Sept. 30. Traditionally, European countries recommend the managing director of the IMF and the United States recommends the head of the World Bank.

"EU ministers agreed to jointly support Kristalina Georgieva for a second mandate as managing director of the IMF," a spokesman for the Belgian EU presidency said.

There were no other candidates, EU officials said.

A source familiar with the IMF's succession plans said that the Fund's executive board this week is expected to formally launch a nominating period during which countries can put forward candidates for consideration as part of its well-established process for selecting a managing director.

At this stage, no non-European candidates have emerged, the source said. The process could be launched as early as Wednesday with nominations open for about three weeks, closing in early April, well ahead of the mid-month IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings.

An IMF spokesperson said details of the selection process were available on the IMF's website.

Georgieva, a Bulgarian national, is the second woman to head the IMF and the first person from an emerging market economy. She is the IMF's 12th managing director since its founding in 1944. She told Reuters last week that she would be "honoured" to serve a second term and was assured that there was strong support for her among European countries and beyond.

A self-described "eternal optimist", Georgieva has led the lender through huge shocks to the global economy, from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic just months after she took office to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.

Georgieva drew criticism inside and outside the IMF early on for her push to include climate change as a factor in surveillance reports on member countries' economies and her focus on emerging market and developing economies.

She has been instrumental in securing large loans for Ukraine, overseen a revamp of Argentina's massive loan program and worked steadily to help China embrace sovereign debt restructurings.

She also survived a personal challenge in 2021 when the IMF's executive board expressed its full confidence in her after reviewing allegations that she pressured staff to alter data to favour China while working at the World Bank. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, additional reporting by David Lawder in Wasington; editing by Inti Landauro, Christina Fincher and Ed Osmond)